Search resumes on Tomales Bay for 70-year-old oyster farm owner Rescue crews returned to Tomales Bay on Wednesday morning to resume a search that started a day earlier when the 70-year-old owner of a Marin County oyster farm went missing after heading out on the water in a motorboat. Tod Friend, an owner of the Tomales Bay Oyster Co. in Marshall, vanished about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday after embarking on a short boat trip his employees said he’s made “a million times.” An employee of the neighboring Hog Island Oyster Co. reported seeing the Friend’s empty boat spinning in circles with no sign of Friend in sight, officials said. On Wednesday, officials from the Coast Guard, the Marin County Fire Department and the Marin County Sheriff’s Office were out looking for Friend.

Marin County Fire officials said the man works at Tomales Bay Oyster Company, which is located on the east side of Tomales Bay in Marshall, officials said. Investigators believe the man, who was not wearing a life jacket, somehow fell off of his boat, which was spotted puttering in circles around the bay by another man. The witness, an employee of neighboring Hog Island Oyster Co., spotted the boat and reported the incident at 3:13 p.m., officials said.

The start of the Bay Area’s newest transit system on Friday is sure to draw a crowd eager to celebrate the return of passenger train service to the North Bay for the first time in 59 years. Officials for Sonoma-Marin Area Transit, or SMART, will host opening-day festivities at 9 a.m. at Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square station. There will be speeches and a traditional ribbon cutting. Anyone hoping to be among the system’s first passengers will have to get to Sonoma County Airport station by 12:49 p.m., when the first train departs as part of the regular afternoon schedule. SMART officials anticipate a big crowd for that run, and all others that run afterward through the rest of the day.